“I have nothing left that I could give,” answered the girl.
“Then promise me, if you should become Queen, your first child.”
“Who knows whether that will ever happen?” thought the miller’s daughter. And, not knowing how else to help herself in this difficulty, she promised the Little Man what he wanted. And for that he once more span the straw into gold.
And when the King came in the morning, and found all as he had wished, he took her in marriage. And the pretty miller’s daughter became a Queen.
A year after, she had a beautiful child, and she never gave a thought to the Little Man. But suddenly he came into her room, and said, “Now give me what you promised.”
The Queen was horror-struck, and offered the Little Man all the riches of the kingdom if he would leave her the child.
But the Little Man said, “No, something that is alive, is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world.”
Then the Queen began to weep and cry, so that the Little Man pitied her. “I will give you three days’ time,” said he; “if by that time you find out my name, then you shall keep your child.”
So the Queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever heard, and she sent a messenger over the country to inquire, far and wide, for any other names there might be.
When the Little Man came the next day, she began with Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, and said all the names she knew, one after another. But to every one the Little Man said, “That is not my name.”